


Against the Cross

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Priest (2011)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, Gen, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-27
Updated: 2012-05-27
Packaged: 2017-11-06 02:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/413773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hicks awakes in the desert, suspended from a cross, with only Black Hat for company.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Against the Cross

**Author's Note:**

> written for Round 11 of the [smallfandomfest](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com) and the prompt Priest (2011 movie), Black Hat/Hicks, Dust to dust

The noonday sun beat down upon the bound body of a young sheriff, light too bright against the surrounding sand and bouncing back up to the sky in too harsh waves. The sheriff was unmoving, head bowed beneath the weight of the sun and his own unconsciousness, slender body slumped and held up by the cross behind him. His arms were outstretched, wrists bound to the arms of the cross by rough textured hanks of rope, leaving abraded welts upon his skin. 

Finally, he stirred, consciousness returning to him in waves as his body twitched in the heat. His eyes fluttered open weakly, blue eyed gaze lifting to stare up at the vaultless sky. The clouds, scant as they were, were caught in his gaze, reflected back to the uncaring vistas above. He coughed weakly, feeling the heat of the midday sun and desert leaching all moisture out of his mouth, leaving him parched and thirsty. He tried to swallow, yet found that one movement painful, bringing tears to his eyes with that one futile gesture. He considered shouting out, attracting attention to himself, even though he knew it to be pointless, hopeless. He could see with only one scant sweep of his gaze that he was utterly alone.

His mind wandered sluggishly in the heat, trying to remember just how it was he came to be here, yet he found he was having difficulty remembering. Of what he did remember, he could only half-snatch from the darkness of his mind in short bursts of fragmented memory, of stopping in a bar one night, of needing to refresh himself with a swift drink. He remembered the Priest and Priestess that had been with him, oddly morose individuals in black robes, with red crosses adorning their faces like age-old wounds. Despite the fact that neither one had deigned to drink, they had still stayed by his side, he remembered that much. That they were searching for the one known as Black Hat was also a remembered fact. 

Lucy.

He suddenly remembered they were searching for Priest’s niece, Lucy and that Black Hat had taken her, that they still were looking for the both of them now. He wondered where Priest and Priestess were now, whether they were looking for him too as well as Lucy.

His mind shifted again and he remembered staggering outside the bar, which he could only assume was the night previously. He’d been inebriated, desperate to take a leak in a darkened alleyway. He’d finished his business, and was just turning around when he saw a flash of yellow eyes, heard an ominous chuckle vibrating against him and then a whole bunch of nothingness. He remembered no more until he’d drifted awake in the middle of the desert. He even had trouble remembering his name, yet he thought it might have been Hicks. 

He tried to pull away from the cross behind him, yet the bindings at his wrists and binding his ankles to the singular downward strut held him firmly in place. There was no escape for him; that much was obvious yet he was glad for the shelter of the hat still upon his head, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun and the worst of the heat every time that he dipped his head down low. His eyes rested upon impossibly white sand, bleached out by the sun and reflecting back light brightly around him. 

He was still staring down at the ground at his feet when a shadow slid into view from somewhere behind where he hung upon the cross. The shadow gradually lengthened and morphed into something human shaped, broader through the shoulders than Hicks was himself, long coat hanging down to drape around the newcomer’s body. The sheriff wondered at that, at how the other person could stand to wear a long coat in this heat, when he himself felt like he was about to burn away if he remained out in it for too long.

He lifted his head slightly, just enough to see a pair of boots walking into his peripheral vision, scuffed toes of leather dusty from the sandy desert surrounding them. Hicks lifted his gaze higher, higher, higher still, noting the lengthy expanse of dark trousers, and the swish of a long leather coat playing around the other’s body as he moved. He coughed weakly, tried to moisten his mouth in preparation to talk, as he lifted his head higher still to meet the face of the person silently watching him. The sheriff blinked, staring into the vivid yellow eyes of the night before, proudly staring back at him, gold ringed and intensely angry. The other man’s lips curled into a calculating smile, flash of fangs showing in his mouth to rest upon his lower lip all too briefly. 

“Not so clever now, are you, law-boy?” the other asked, dipping his head a little closer to the sheriff, wide brimmed hat throwing odd shadows over his face as he did so. “Getting yourself all up in a bind by Black Hat himself.” 

The sheriff tried to pull away, scared that the vampire in front of him would try to harm him, knowing that there was little he could do about it if he did. He could not run, he could not fight, he could do no more other than just to hang there and to suffer whatever degradations Black Hat had in mind for him. He couldn‘t believe that he had been so stupid to be kidnapped by the very person, vampire, whatever, that tehy had been searching for for days.

“Hicks,” he managed to croak out. “My name is Hicks.” 

“What’s that, boy? You say something?” the vampire asked, circling him, and running one black gloved hand across Hicks’ body, an almost caress that sent shivers through Hicks’ body despite the overwhelming heat.

“My name is Hicks,” Hicks replied again, voice louder now yet still cracked and dry as the surrounding sandy desert.

“Well, now, isn’t that nice? You have a name,” Black Hat said, with a slight mocking note to his voice. “I used to have a name too, before the Church took it from me. I used to have a life too, before the Priests left me to die. Now all I have left is the vengeance which fuels me on. But I guess you care little about that, huh?” 

“Let me go,” Hicks said, tightly, raising his eyes to meet that gold-ringed yellow glare head-on. 

“Or you’ll what? Bite me? That ain’t happening any time soon,” the vampire said, with a laugh. “Besides which, that’s kinda my job. Tell me, lawman Hicks, how does it feel to talk so brave when you’re so helpless, hmmm?” 

“Let me go,” Hicks repeated, angrily. “What do you want from me?”

“I think the question is, what do you want from me?” Black Hat countered. “I know you’ve been tracking me.”

“I think you know,” Hicks replied, angrily, coughing as the higher volume made his parched throat ache even more. “You’ve taken something from us.” 

“Us? I only remember taking something from one of you,” Black Hat said, with a snort. “Your Priest is not so Holy as you might think. He took something from me too. He took my life and left me to die, did you know that?” 

“Bullshit,” Hicks countered, frowning at the vampire as Black Hat stole a little closer to him, so close he could see the puffs of dust that arced up from beneath his boots.

“It’s true. He left me to die in the Sola Mira caves. He didn’t even make the attempt to come back for me. Him and the other Priests and Priestesses. To think I called them my brothers,” Black Hat said, before he spat upon the sand. “And so I took something that I know he holds dear, just to even the scales up a bit. Eye for an eye and all that jazz.” 

“I still don’t know why I’m here,” Hicks said, straining forward from the cross behind him.

“I need you to take a message to your Priest. Tell him, when he finally catches up with me, to come alone, but to not expect me to not have a little fun with sweet little Lucy first,” Black Hat said, smirk exposing his fangs to the light again.

“You bastard, you wouldn’t,” Hicks said, fear suddenly ratcheting through him at the thought of all that the vampire could do the girl.

“I would and I could,” the vampire said, sounding a little bored with the conversation suddenly. 

Black Hat moved so swiftly then, that Hicks barely even saw him move; blurring movement transporting the vampire from one spot to another. Black Hat was pressed up against him, body pinning the young lawman up against the cross behind him, trapping him still further. He whimpered, fear ratcheting through him again to be plainly seen in his eyes, and he cursed himself for showing the vampire how he truly felt. Black Hat chuckled, vibrations transmuting from his chest into Hicks’ own. He leant in, the brim of his hat knocking and sliding against Hicks’ own, as he sniffed at Hicks’ neck. The lawman felt Black Hat’s tongue probing at his pulse point and he turned his head away in disgust, further exposing his neck unwittingly to the vampire. Again Black Hat chuckled, before the sounds of motorbikes roaring nearer drifted across the sandy plains surrounding them.

“Ahh, the cavalry have arrived. Aren’t you lucky?” Black Hat asked, still without taking his mouth from Hicks’ neck.

Hicks just wished the vampire would leave him be, yet Black Hat had other ideas. He nipped lightly at Hicks’ neck, brief flash of pain there and gone again, swift enough to draw a gasp from Hicks’ throat and deep enough to draw a slight bead of blood that welled and danced upon the young man’s skin. Black Hat nuzzled Hicks’ neck and licked the welling blood from the nick before pulling away.

“I used to be a Priest you know,” Black Hat said again, voice vibrating against Hicks’ throat. “And so I commend thy soul of my brother departed, to the mercy of the Almighty God I no longer believe in, and commit your body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that godforsaken crap.” 

“You were never that kind of Priest,” Hicks ground out. 

“Maybe, maybe not. You’ll never know. Neither will I, anymore,” Black Hat said. “I’m the one that Heaven refused and Hell won’t accept. Guess I’ll be gone for a while. More sins to commit, after all.” 

And with that he was gone, the weight of his body no longer pinning Hicks against the cross. Once again, Hicks hadn’t seen him move, yet the tracks in the sand were the only indication that Black Hat had even been there at all. The sheriff breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing against his bonds and merely hanging there, head bowed low, a slight ache from the wound in his throat the only sign that Black Hat had been there at all. 

It wasn’t long before the Priest and Priestess pulled up beside him on their motorbikes and were cutting him down, forcing life giving water down his throat until he at least was the right side of hydrated again. He hastily told them the things that Black Hat had imparted to him, before Priest and Priestess nodded. Without speaking further, they climbed upon their motorbikes, Hicks riding behind Priestess as they followed in Black Hat’s wake.


End file.
